Cornish apple trees
It might come as a surprise, but apart from crab apples there are no apple trees native to the UK. All the other apple trees we have in this country originate from Kazakhstan and Southern Asia through trading.
For the origin of Cornish varieties, many would have been received as a payment for Cornish tin.
A lot of those trees’ ancestors have survived and produced well in different parts of the county and have been identified locally by various distinguished titles; some named by their locations, such as Manaccan Primrose, and others by the person who may have rediscovered them like Ben’s Red.
Many of these varieties carry distinct flavours and individual character, and their ripening time notably marks the calendar month for another harvest. It’s so nice to eat a memorable, tasty fruit.
There is variation in flowering times and therefore fruit is ripe at different times of the growing season. The flowering times are graded 1-5, 1 is the earliest flowering and 5 the latest. Early flowering groups normally fruit in early August/ September, and later flowering groups fruit later in the season from October to November. The later fruit generally keeps longer.
Here at the Forest Garden nursery, in the bare root season, we carry a large selection of Cornish varieties of apple trees including dessert, cooking, cider and dual-purpose trees.
Here are some of Simon’s Top Tips when buying apple trees.
SIMON’S TOP TIPS (APPLES)
For all-round versatility and growing style options, choose apple varieties grown on an MM106 rootstock. The root stock is there to attempt to standardise growth to about 13’ to 15’, this varies between varieties.
When purchasing a series of trees, its worth varying your flower groups (see below) to extend your harvesting period.
Apple trees require other varieties of apple trees from the same or similar flowering group to act as a pollinator. For example, if your first tree is in Flowering Group 3 you will need another tree from Flowering Group 3, Flowering Group 2 or Flowering Group 4, as there is cross over at the beginning and ending of each flowering group’s period.
The exception to this is the Bramley 20 which needs two other trees of different varieties but within the same FG.
The bare root tree planting season starts in December until early March, although sales start from September. Early ordering is advisable to avoid disappointment.
Don’t pre-dig your planting holes prior to buying your trees. Advice on tree planting will be available on collection of your tree(s) from the nursery.
Be careful about buying trees from supermarkets as many of their species’ selection does not always suit the Cornish climate. Supermarkets buy in bulk and in most cases the same varieties of trees will be distributed around the country to all stores irrespective of the tree’s best needs.
If you are looking to start your own orchard, need advice and help with design, species selection, planting, spacing, setting out or a site visit, then we are happy to discuss your needs.
The availability list is usually published in September. To be kept informed of the variety and availability of species, you can sign up to our mailing list which goes out 4 times a year. To do this go to the contact page and drop an email stating your desire to be included.
Contact: Simon On 07964 75 05 65